2010 Aug & Sep
Monday, 8/30/10, 7:30a, 65°F – wpull harnesses pulling a 19″ truck tire, a security leash to their collars. I need to drag out my running shoes, kennel shoes are not enough.
| Storm (b. 10/02, 60# Black Ice harness) banged the harness, head down, all the way down the driveway (3/8″ washed gravel), across the front of my property (6″ mowed grass), down and up the drainage ditch without help, paused a moment to collect herself, and then threw herself against the harness again, head down, and bulled her way through hayfield grass (8-10″) to the next property line maybe another 300′. Paused, breathed, got her turned around, and came back home — UP the steep gravel driveway at a slow lope. | |
| Honey (b. 12/06, 80# Black Ice harness, needs a 70#) was thrilled to be going somewhere right up to the point she realized she was going to be the locomotion for the trip. Lord knows she will go all day in harness next to her loverboy Maestro, but she is not going to weightpull, even tho I try her several times a year. Not her thing. | |
| Amak (b. 8/07, 80# Black Ice harness) was wonderful in harness down the driveway and until he had to actually work. Then, like his aunt Honey, he said, Who’s driving this bus? Lots of kisses, lots of leans and hugs, and not much pulling, although I did get him to pull a littlebit on the way back up the driveway. Not enough to justify how out of breath I was… | |
| Tori (b. 10/06, 80# Black Ice harness) is my Tori Baby Wow! She’s nearly as good as Storm, and that’s saying something. She puts her nose to her toes and bulls into the harness like she’s a professional… and she’s strictly new here. She’s worn a harness before, but her owner keeps getting hurt and putting a kibosh to any plans of practice, much less titling. Today she was mimicking cousin Storm, powered down the driveway, headed into the 6″ grass without being told, head down and working it. She went down the drainage ditch, but stopped and looked behind her to be sure no one was standing on the tire. Then went back to work. She needed a break 50 feet after that. And we made that the turning around point. She did not lope up the driveway like Storm did, but she sure put some effort into it. |
This is the first day I felt safe in even putting harnesses on the dogs. It’s been awful – humid and hot and still sweating weather at 11p. There was one year I started wpull training in early July, and here it is October in 2 days. Does that mean a mild or severe winter? Thankfully we have propane for the first full winter. Let’s see how that goes.
Tuesday, 8/31/10, 8:00a, 78°F – great plans for today, too hot, broke into a sweat walking out the door. Tomorrow then. Earlier. Giving a lot of thought to my Yogi, Honey & kids dilemma.
Wednesday 9/1/10, 7:00a, 66°F – Pulled Sunny and daughter Bright. Still considering my Yogi, Honey & kids dilemma. Bright is a Yogi kid.
| Sunny (b. 9/03, 90# Black Ice harness) Hit the harness like half-sister Storm, both daughters of CH Tessa’s Sir Charles CGC “Charles” RWD at the ’98 NS beating out nearly 100 of the countries best class dogs… and MAN can they pull. It’s instinctive, they just do it. | |
| Bright (b. 5/08, 80# Black Ice harness). A Yogi daughter… won’t pull. This is baffling. |
Had to take 10w Solo and the 4ea 9w I’m fostering to the vet for 2nd shots, fecals, exams, weights, etc. Was thinking about training them to harness and how I would take things in gradual and small increments. Teach them a collar first, then a leash on the collar, then a harness just putting it on and taking it off, then a leash to the tugline on the harness, then some small weight on the tugline, then the tire long after they had gotten the technique of harness tightening on the body thing…. Wanted to thump myself in the head. Duh!
8:00p, 76°F – still too warm, but I have to know, I must know! I had to take a couple of winters off for my injuries. Storm, Sunny, Tori are all related, but they were also TRAINED before I threw them on the big truck tire….
| So I took Honey, harnessed her up, she didn’t seem stressed at all, tail wagging, grinning, and hooked her harness to a 6′ plastic toboggan sled that weighs all of 15# and glides noisily over any surface. Happily we go down the driveway, through the grass across the front of my place, down the ditch, up the ditch, and across the next property through tall hayfield grass. She even PULLED, OK, what was there to pull, but she DID. So on the way back I hooked the leash to her tugline and gave a little pressure, and I could have cried. She dropped her nose to her toes and leaned into the harness. Now, she lifted her nose, too, but we worked the whole way back UP the long driveway, YES for every nose drop. And her tail was wagging and she LOPED up the driveway. Hurrah! | |
| Bright‘s turn. 70# harness. Bright is SOFT. She will drop her butt into the fastest sit you’ve ever seen if you yank on the collar. Note to self, don’t yank on collar. She did the same thing the first time the ‘boggan made a racket behind her. But she went back, on her own, inspected the thing, sniffed it all over, then walked back to me, and passed me and the ‘boggan dragged noisily behind her. YIPPEE! OK, problem not totally solved, she does have a habit of running 10 feet and dropping into a sit. But she DID pull the thing the whole way and she DID lope up the steep driveway like her mama. |
Ran out of daylight and we’re too new into the season for me to want to be chasing dogs in the dark. But YIPPEEE! I am so relieved. It’s not a pedigree problem, it’s a stupid human trick…. handler error, no matter the sport, seems to plague me. I teach obedience, I know all about teaching the smallest part of a behavior and building, or chaining, the behaviors together, but no! I stuck an adult in a new situation and got frustrated when they didn’t know it in their bones. Checking my notes from passed years, Storm was one of the WORST in harness at first, until it all gelled. So it was TRAINING I was so pleased with, more so than instinct. Another Duh! moment. But I can’t WAIT to try Yogi and his sons Amak & Akai in the morning… a step at a time instead of just throwing them on a race team!
Thursday 9/2/10, 7:00a, 65°F – Have not tried any of these guys in harness… go slow, one step at a time, start with the plastic toboggan the first day and be happy with success. BUILD on that and try to only have good runs. Yogi and his son Akai, and Yogi’s grandson Wyatt. Pax isn’t related to them in the least. Have to go back and get Amak (another Yogi son) and see how that goes. Really want to start on teams, but need the foundation first.
| Yogi (b. 5/06, 60# Black Ice harness. needs a 70, but this worked for now) Used the plastic toboggan WITH the 19″ tire riding on top of it for a little weight, the ‘boggan slid so fast I thought it was going to ride up on the dogs, even with the extra length between them. But when Yogi hit the resistance of the ‘boggan facing the wrong way, he sat pretty. See me sit pretty. I am a good puppy and I am sitting pretty. Big ole sloppy grin on his face. Good boy! And walked away. Hey, HEY! MOM! Don’t LEAVE me here hooked to this thing. And he took a tentative step. GOOD BOY! Oh, you want me to pull? Despite years of telling a natural-born sleddog stuff like no-pull and easy and crap like that? Fine, I’ll show you how it’s done…. and he did. Head down, leaning into the harness, rear legs digging in, front feet reaching… course we’re still going DOWNHILL on gravel (ie ballbearings)…. but he really did have the form. The rest will come. | |
| Akai (b. 10/07, 110# custom harness, needs a 100#, but fitted the neck with a ziptie and it will work) His daddy Yogi showed him how to do this, and he was wonderful going DOWNHILL, but when it started to be a little hard, he said, Hey, remember all that time when I was living with kids and they kept telling me, on pain of death, DO NOT PULL….. no fair changing the rules now. So I told him, Yes, you are pretty. And Yes, we told you for all those years living with those kids that you should NOT pull. But now you are supposed to PULL. Well, he says, if you put it like that. But we did take the weight out of the sledge, as I want him to succeed, even if it’s a gimmee, on his first effort. | |
| Pax (b. 8/08, 90# Black Ice harness fits perfectly). Words fail me. I got all choked up. There is a picture of his great-granddaddy Brad Pitt (pic) pulling with his whole body crouched down, his front wide and reaching for ground and his rear digging in with a low pelvis, and his nose just over the ground….. I got goose bumps all over watching Pax drop into that natural form with NO TRAINING, but boy did he get reinforcement every time he assumed the position. And Pax pulled uphill with the same form he pulled downhill, low altitude and POWER. It’s a glorious day in Wayehland. |
Friday, 9/3/10, 7:00a, 70°F – Gotta try Amak again, this is killing me to know if it was my handler error with the new kids, which it probably was… <G>
| Amak (b. 8/07, 80# Black Ice harness) He pulled just fine as soon as I explained to him slowly, in words with one syllable, what I wanted done! Oh, sure, that…. | |
| Wyatt (b. 11/08, 100# custom harness) and it fits him, holy moly! Wyatt is Amak & Tori’s son, and praise be, he takes after his mother in harness. It’s a beautiful thing! Head down, rear crouched and digging in, shouldering into the harness…. guess who is gonna be pulling for me in October? |
OK, narrowed down the list. The others can pull but these guys WANT to pull. So we will work this list and the others will get a season in team harness before we push for individual performances.
Weightpull training
| Storm (b. 10/02, 60# Black Ice harness) | |
| Tori (b. 10/06, 80# Black Ice harness) | |
| Wyatt (b. 11/08, 100# custom harness) | |
| Pax (b. 8/08, 90# Black Ice harness) |
Conditioning for conformation, these two will run double on the scooter
| Akai (b. 10/07, 110# Black Ice harness, fitted neck) | |
| Sunny (b. 9/03, 90# Black Ice harness) |
November 2010
Saturday, 11/13/10 – Crazy lately, 5 shows in 6 weekends. Sunny is an AKC champion, Sirius is almost an AKC champion (14 pts, 4 mjrs), Akai has a major (3pts), Hoodoo has 2 majors (6pts). Storm has 2/3 UWP, and Wyatt has 1/3.
Rally training – Sera (RE), Wyatt, Pax & Bright (RN)
Obedience training – Sera, Tom, & Singer (BNs)
Weightpull training – Storm (2/3), Wyatt (1/3), Pax, Akai, Yogi, Theia, Tori & Amak (UWPs)
Harness team training (WTD)
–
Sera, Chooch,
Wyatt, Boogie
Akai/Yogi, Kiowa, BaRoo
Maestro, Honey
Sunny, Bright,
Comet, ChaCha
Pax, Storm, Trumpet
Amak, Tori
Theia, Clay
Harness lead dog training (WLD) – Sera, Sunny, Maestro, Amak, & Storm
Monday, 11/15/10 – Obedience training on the flat in the big yard down next to the highway — in the rain. Each dog is working through one string cheese stick and then we quit on a happy upbeat note. Some dogs get a LOT of work out of one stick, but the ones that go through it quickly really NEED the reinforcement at this stage. We just started back training seriously November 1st. They have all had a long break this fall, after intense Summer trianing @ ORKC — June, July, August, then a break while we went to 5 shows in 6 weekends for conformation and weightpull.
Seranade (5y) is working both Rally Excellent and Beginner’s Novice and it’s too much for her all at once. This is the dog with the 50% Q rate because she stresses so…. we’re dropping the BN because the stay is REALLY worrying her. OK. We have 4 days at the Franklin show in January, we’ll aim for RE and let her relax the rest of the day.
Tom T. & Singer (nearly 11yos) are working Beginner’s Novice. Heeling & Figure 8s are their downfall. She doesn’t have an automatic sit and both meander. But their sit for exam, stays, and recalls are pretty durned wonderful. <G> Yeah, I want the titles, but more than that, I want to say, they are HERE at a show, competing as 11yos… <hubris maybe, or simple pride>
Wyatt (2y) is working for his Rally Novice and BOUNCES all over the place, happy, forging, exuberant.. considering how much work we put into head shyness when he was a puppy — FOUR puppy classes — I am hesitant to correct this wild excitement, knowing it will dim down a LOT when we get into public…. we’re going to have to start working the 5 of them in city parks… to see just how MUCH dimming we’re going to see..
Pax (2y) is also working for his Rally Novice and also BOUNCES. <LOL> He’s better on heel position, by a little bit, but worse on his down-stays by a lot….
Bright (2y) is the least prepared, but we have 2 months to decide who goes — close date is 1/12.
Saturday, 11/20/10 – 1m Single dog Groundwork is done, now we do 1m Groundwork teams — 2 dogs in sledding x-back harnesses on a 2-dog gangline back to a 19″ truck tire. I have a 10′ horse lead hooked to the same eyebolt that the gangline is hooked to, the eyebolt run through the tread and secured with washers and locknuts. This is a scooter gangline with a light-weight bungee in the gangline. Love this. And I do NOT use necklines if at all possible. GROUND work because I’m on the ground, not on wheels, and have significantly more control because the speed is significantly slower — i.e. safer.
The path is out the main gate, down the gravel driveway — very slick — across the front of the property on tall yard grass, into the ditch, up out of the ditch and across a hayfield mowed tall. Across Highway 27 to old Hwy 27 that had the roadbed ground up and grass planted. This is hayfield grass and unmowed. Down to the firehall, turn around and reverse. So except for crossing the highway, this is grass and hayfields and a short gravel driveway.
The teams are one experienced dog and one younger dog who has been doing individual groundwork once/week since September, temps were our issue.. The young dog is praised when they are leaning into the harness with the experienced dog. Encouraged (sometimes sharply) when they lag, and praised again when they get it right. Teaching the team to HUP, EASY, COME BACK, WHOA, LINE OUT, HAW, GEE, and ON BY. Am NOT using a neckline at this point, I want the dog to choose to work with the team mate, and I don’t want to deal with tangles every 20 feet. No physical corrections or praises. I am often walking beside the pair, but I don’t touch them or encourage them to look to me. When I call a halt, they get tons of pats and rubs, but only when I am the one calling the halt.
| 7y Sunny WTD UWP, and her daughter 2y Bright (80# & 80# x-backs) – They are very compatible structurally. Sunny knows the job, puts her head down and does it. Bright got tangled a few times. Stepped over the line and turned around for a tangle. But she only did it a couple of times. She wanted to wander off and follow scent trails a couple of times, but we kept going head down at a driving walk, and when the line yanked her, she scurried to catch up, she got lots of praise for running up next to Sunny. On the way back, she figured it out and was head down, stride for stride with her mama Sunny. Until a suicidal squirrel run under their legs and the girls got tangled trying to chase it under each others legs… After I quit laughing, we lined out and kept going, but both of them had their heads up looking up the old sycamore the squirrel was sitting in. Two halts on the way down and two on the way back. Mostly because Sunny was doing the majority of work. | |
| 8y Storm WTD UWP and 2y Pax (70# & 90# x-backs) – they are NOT compatible structurally, it’s Mutt and Jeff. He’s got her by 3″ and she’s all short coupled and low center of gravity. He’s all rangy and long legs. But he has a very low to the ground crouch for weightpull and when he’s digging in and she’s digging in, they are very much compatible. But he can nearly step over her when she’s head down and low to the ground working and he’s, well, not so much. Pax likes to jump the gangline. He works like a fiend, but he gets distracted and when he spies something interesting, he’ll jump the gangline and go investigate, regardless of the direction we WERE going in. He got better after the first half mile, but then he would jump the gangline to be on the side I was walking on… so I hung back and he was better. |
Sunday 11/21/10 Team groundwork weekend – maybe if I hadn’t gotten hurt last year, twice, or I was 10 years younger, or I was running Siberians, or the teams were already trained, I wouldn’t be going so slow with these guys. But I am going slow. Individual Weightpull (groundwork) training for a month. Now Team Groundwork for however long my legs last, then we’ll add wheels. But not until I am confident we won’t run out into traffic.
But today, bright and crisp and cold, is the 11th birthday for the SnowSong litter — Rider X Summer, and Tom & Singer went for a run to show the whippersnappers how it’s done. Snowman in Florida is working on his agility championship, and well on his way. Wihnona is in Minnesota, and Solo is in Washington.
| 11yos Tom WTD WLD WWPD & sister Singer WTD WLD (100# & 90# x-backs) get their morning run this morning for their ELEVENTH birthday, WTD Tom T. & Sing-Sing… See pics. These kids are NOT retired, oh, no, not yet… |
Monday 11/22/10
| 7y Maestro WTD UWP & 4y Honey (80# & 80# x-backs) – Very compatible structurally, he’s an inch taller than she is, both have compact backs and good length of legs, which is why I bred them to get Kiowa, I guess. <LOL> Maestro is a lover boy with the ladies. Unless he’s in harness and then he’s torn between impressing them by his daring do and goofing off to get their attention. Honey isn’t really sure what’s going on yet. She let him do most of the work and although her line as taut, it wasn’t thrumming from the workload. | |
| 5y Seranade WTD UWP & 2y Wyatt (90# & 100X x-backs) – this team is a lot of power, both of them 85# and tall, so when they want something to move, it moves. | |
| 3y Akai & 2y BaRoo (90# & 70# x-backs) | |
| 4y Tori & 3y Amak (80# & 80# x-backs) are both green. But Tori is Tori Baby WOW! when you put her in harness, so there is a lot of natural (if untutored) work ethic here. |
Saturday, 11/13/10 – Crazy lately, 5 shows in 6 weekends. Sunny is an AKC champion, Sirius is almost an AKC champion (14 pts, 4 mjrs), Akai has a major (3pts), Hoodoo has 2 majors (6pts). Storm has 2/3 UWP, and Wyatt has 1/3.
Rally training – Sera (RE), Wyatt, Pax & Bright (RN)
Obedience training – Sera, Tom, & Singer (BNs)
Weightpull training – Storm (2/3), Wyatt (1/3), Pax, Akai, Yogi, Theia, Tori & Amak (UWPs)
Harness team training (WTD)
–
Sunny, Bright
Pax, Storm
Maestro, Honey
Sera, Wyatt
Amak, Tori
Akai, BaRoo
Harness lead dog training (WLD) – Sera, Sunny, Maestro, Amak, & Storm
Monday, 11/15/10 – Obedience training on the flat in the big yard down next to the highway — in the rain. Each dog is working through one string cheese stick and then we quit on a happy upbeat note. Some dogs get a LOT of work out of one stick, but the ones that go through it quickly really NEED the reinforcement at this stage. We just started back training seriously November 1st. They have all had a long break this fall, after intense Summer trianing @ ORKC — June, July, August, then a break while we went to 5 shows in 6 weekends for conformation and weightpull.
Seranade (5y) is working both Rally Excellent and Beginner’s Novice and it’s too much for her all at once. This is the dog with the 50% Q rate because she stresses so…. we’re dropping the BN because the stay is REALLY worrying her. OK. We have 4 days at the Franklin show in January, we’ll aim for RE and let her relax the rest of the day.
Tom T. & Singer (nearly 11yos) are working Beginner’s Novice. Heeling & Figure 8s are their downfall. She doesn’t have an automatic sit and both meander. But their sit for exam, stays, and recalls are pretty durned wonderful. <G> Yeah, I want the titles, but more than that, I want to say, they are HERE at a show, competing as 11yos… <hubris maybe, or simple pride>
Wyatt (2y) is working for his Rally Novice and BOUNCES all over the place, happy, forging, exuberant.. considering how much work we put into head shyness when he was a puppy — FOUR puppy classes — I am hesitant to correct this wild excitement, knowing it will dim down a LOT when we get into public…. we’re going to have to start working the 5 of them in city parks… to see just how MUCH dimming we’re going to see..
Pax (2y) is also working for his Rally Novice and also BOUNCES. <LOL> He’s better on heel position, by a little bit, but worse on his down-stays by a lot….
Bright (2y) is the least prepared, but we have 2 months to decide who goes — close date is 1/12.
Saturday, 11/20/10 – 1m Single dog Groundwork is done, now we do 1m Groundwork teams — 2 dogs in sledding x-back harnesses on a 2-dog gangline back to a 19″ truck tire. I have a 10′ horse lead hooked to the same eyebolt that the gangline is hooked to, the eyebolt run through the tread and secured with washers and locknuts. This is a scooter gangline with a light-weight bungee in the gangline. Love this. And I do NOT use necklines if at all possible. GROUND work because I’m on the ground, not on wheels, and have significantly more control because the speed is significantly slower — i.e. safer.
The path is out the main gate, down the gravel driveway — very slick — across the front of the property on tall yard grass, into the ditch, up out of the ditch and across a hayfield mowed tall. Across Highway 27 to old Hwy 27 that had the roadbed ground up and grass planted. This is hayfield grass and unmowed. Down to the firehall, turn around and reverse. So except for crossing the highway, this is grass and hayfields and a short gravel driveway.
The teams are one experienced dog and one younger dog who has been doing individual groundwork once/week since September, temps were our issue.. The young dog is praised when they are leaning into the harness with the experienced dog. Encouraged (sometimes sharply) when they lag, and praised again when they get it right. Teaching the team to HUP, EASY, COME BACK, WHOA, LINE OUT, HAW, GEE, and ON BY. Am NOT using a neckline at this point, I want the dog to choose to work with the team mate, and I don’t want to deal with tangles every 20 feet. No physical corrections or praises. I am often walking beside the pair, but I don’t touch them or encourage them to look to me. When I call a halt, they get tons of pats and rubs, but only when I am the one calling the halt.
| 7y Sunny WTD UWP, and her daughter 2y Bright (80# & 80# x-backs) – They are very compatible structurally. Sunny knows the job, puts her head down and does it. Bright got tangled a few times. Stepped over the line and turned around for a tangle. But she only did it a couple of times. She wanted to wander off and follow scent trails a couple of times, but we kept going head down at a driving walk, and when the line yanked her, she scurried to catch up, she got lots of praise for running up next to Sunny. On the way back, she figured it out and was head down, stride for stride with her mama Sunny. Until a suicidal squirrel run under their legs and the girls got tangled trying to chase it under each others legs… After I quit laughing, we lined out and kept going, but both of them had their heads up looking up the old sycamore the squirrel was sitting in. Two halts on the way down and two on the way back. Mostly because Sunny was doing the majority of work. | |
| 8y Storm WTD UWP and 2y Pax (70# & 90# x-backs) – they are NOT compatible structurally, it’s Mutt and Jeff. He’s got her by 3″ and she’s all short coupled and low center of gravity. He’s all rangy and long legs. But he has a very low to the ground crouch for weightpull and when he’s digging in and she’s digging in, they are very much compatible. But he can nearly step over her when she’s head down and low to the ground working and he’s, well, not so much. Pax likes to jump the gangline. He works like a fiend, but he gets distracted and when he spies something interesting, he’ll jump the gangline and go investigate, regardless of the direction we WERE going in. He got better after the first half mile, but then he would jump the gangline to be on the side I was walking on… so I hung back and he was better. |
Sunday 11/21/10 Team groundwork weekend – maybe if I hadn’t gotten hurt last year, twice, or I was 10 years younger, or I was running Siberians, or the teams were already trained, I wouldn’t be going so slow with these guys. But I am going slow. Individual Weightpull (groundwork) training for a month. Now Team Groundwork for however long my legs last, then we’ll add wheels. But not until I am confident we won’t run out into traffic.
But today, bright and crisp and cold, is the 11th birthday for the SnowSong litter — Rider X Summer, and Tom & Singer went for a run to show the whippersnappers how it’s done. Snowman in Florida is working on his agility championship, and well on his way. Wihnona is in Minnesota, and Solo is in Washington.
| 11yos Tom WTD WLD WWPD & sister Singer WTD WLD (100# & 90# x-backs) get their morning run this morning for their ELEVENTH birthday, WTD Tom T. & Sing-Sing… See pics. These kids are NOT retired, oh, no, not yet… |
Monday 11/22/10
| 7y Maestro WTD UWP & 4y Honey (80# & 80# x-backs) – Very compatible structurally, he’s an inch taller than she is, both have compact backs and good length of legs, which is why I bred them to get Kiowa, I guess. <LOL> Maestro is a lover boy with the ladies. Unless he’s in harness and then he’s torn between impressing them by his daring do and goofing off to get their attention. Honey isn’t really sure what’s going on yet. She let him do most of the work and although her line as taut, it wasn’t thrumming from the workload. | |
| 5y Seranade WTD UWP & 2y Wyatt (90# & 100X x-backs) – this team is a lot of power, both of them 85# and tall, so when they want something to move, it moves. | |
| 3y Akai & 2y BaRoo (90# & 70# x-backs) | |
| 4y Tori & 3y Amak (80# & 80# x-backs) are both green. But Tori is Tori Baby WOW! when you put her in harness, so there is a lot of natural (if untutored) work ethic here. |